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Pakistan’s Terror Connections

CHICAGO — A federal judge in Chicago imposed a 35-year prison sentence Thursday on David Coleman Headley for his role in plotting the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks that killed 166 people, including six Americans, and for a foiled plot in Denmark.

Headley, a 52-year-old businessman and former U.S. drug informant, avoided the death penalty by confessing that he did surveillance for both plots and cooperating extensively with investigators after his arrest in October 2009.

Despite extensive evidence and a U.S. indictment, Pakistani authorities haven't moved to arrest accused masterminds in the 2008 massacre or explain the alleged involvement of officers in Pakistan's spy agency.

Officials say David Coleman Headley slipped through the cracks despite repeated warnings to U.S. law enforcement. Indian authorities think the U.S. knew more than it has revealed about the ex-informant’s activities before the 2008 siege that killed 166 people, including six U.S. citizens.

U.S. and Indian officials say weeks of interrogating Zabiuddin Ansari yielded new evidence that Pakistani intelligence officers helped plan and direct the 2008 terror onslaught that cost six Americans and 160 others their lives.

Hafeez Saeed, cofounder of the militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba, remains at liberty in Pakistan, where prosecution has stalled of other alleged planners in the attacks that killed 166 people, including six U.S. citizens.

ProPublica and PBS FRONTLINE will publish the results of a months-long investigation into how David Coleman Headley worked as a spy for the Pakistan’s intelligence service while planning the 2008 Mumbai attack for the terrorist organization.

ProPublica's Sebastian Rotella has spent more than a year investigating suspected links between Pakistan's intelligence service and terrorist groups as well as the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Here's an overview of his investigation with links to stories that can help you dig even deeper.

David Coleman Headley testified Tuesday that he tried to help U.S. authorities lure a suspected mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai attacks out of Pakistan. He also said an al-Qaida-connected leader wanted to assassinate the head of Lockheed Martin.

When bin Laden was discovered hiding in a Pakistani town populated by the country’s military elite, questions surfaced again about Pakistan relationship with terrorist groups. An ongoing trial in Chicago, involving the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is keeping those suspicions alive.

Confessed terrorist David Coleman Headley says he met with six Pakistani intelligence officers during his years of terrorist activity. In court on Tuesday he said he was “pleased” when he learned that 166 people had been slaughtered in the Mumbai attacks.

Tahawwur Rana is on trial for being an accomplice in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. But the spotlight will be on the star witness, David Coleman Headley, who has pleaded guilty in the case and has said he was working for Pakistan's intelligence service as well as for the terrorist group Lashkar-i-Taiba.